R5 3600 or R5 3600X binning

fastfishy2 · May 10, 2020

Hi,

I have the R5 3600 in my rig and I'm not overclocking, but I have a mate who has expressed interest in getting one of the R5 3600 models and as he has a good liquid cooling setup and enjoys overclocking, he intends to overclock it as much as he safely can. I was just wondering, seeing as the R5 3600X is identical to the non-X 3600 in every way except stock clock speeds, does that indicate that it is slightly higher binned silicon? Is it reasonable to expect somewhat better overclocking performance out of the 3600X as opposed to the 3600, or is it better for my mate to just buy the standard 3600 and overclock that one anyway?

Streetguru · May 10, 2020

1 minute ago, fastfishy2 said:

Hi,

Unless the price difference is like under $20 the non X model is fine

overclocking memory is what matters more for Ryzen, the CPUs will boost themselves to the max out of the box with good cooling

DailyProcrastinator · May 10, 2020

12 minutes ago, fastfishy2 said:

I have the R5 3600 in my rig and I'm not overclocking, but I have a mate who has expressed interest in getting one of the R5 3600 models and as he has a good liquid cooling setup and enjoys overclocking, he intends to overclock it as much as he safely can. I was just wondering, seeing as the R5 3600X is identical to the non-X 3600 in every way except stock clock speeds, does that indicate that it is slightly higher binned silicon? Is it reasonable to expect somewhat better overclocking performance out of the 3600X as opposed to the 3600, or is it better for my mate to just buy the standard 3600 and overclock that one anyway?

3rd gen Ryzen does not OC well as these chips pretty well provide the best performance right out of the box, nor is traditional OC'ing really something I would recommend, I have found that I have gotten the most performance out of my memory. Look at this as a new way to OC. Instead of adjusting the CPU you play around with memory voltage, frequency and timings.

IF a CPU overclock is something of interest then the best way to do so is keeping the voltage low, set an offset, and adjust the boost frequency via PBO with the Ryzen Master software. In the past I have always OC'd my CPU's but after extensive research on 3rd gen Ryzen behavior I have deiced to not bother at all, I have instead OC'd my 3200MHz memory to 3466MHz and tightened up my timings, I got a good performance boost this way.

Good read on voltage issues with the new Ryzen CPU’s: (And why I recommend low voltage)

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/ejd5c9/1325v_is_not_safe_for_zen_2/

As for which CPU to get, (assuming USD) the extra $30 is not worth it in my opinion, it is better suited towards getting faster RAM, I recommend a 3600MHz CL16 kit.